I got tagged by Van to do the “six weird things about me” meme. Here’s what I’ve got, in no particular order.

My favorite animal is the moose. When my sister and I were kids, our parents took us to the Milwaukee Zoo. When we were done walking around, they asked if we wanted to go back and see anything, and I said I wanted to see the moose again, taking them completely off guard. This was followed by many years of impossible-to-find moose gifts (many of which, in hindsight, were actually reindeer).

I am conservative. That’s not that weird in theory, except that as an amateur musician and photographer, I’m in a very small minority. I’m not a typical Republican, though, leaning toward Libertarian. Let’s put it this way: in college, I worked for the conservative campus newspaper even though I had two tattoos and nine piercings at the time.

I grew up listening to classical music exclusively, and in high school, I dropped that and started listening to metal pretty much overnight. Since then, I’ve gotten into electronic, hip-hop, jazz, blues, folk, and even a little country music. I don’t listen to a lot of classical or metal music now.

I have both the distinction of having gone to Northwestern University and the stigma of having dropped out. That leads to some very interesting discussions.

Cheez-Its have long been an obsession of mine. I just love those cheesy snack crackers. In high school, a friend and I made an hour-long movie, Oliver & Lopez, in which Cheez-Its were prominently featured. Another friend and I started The Cheez-It Circle, which was supposed to be a Web ring dedicated to Cheez-Its. The Cheez-It Circle never took off, but Oliver & Lopez debuted in our school auditorium to a crowd of over 200 people. We still hope to release Oliver & Lopez on DVD someday.

I’m a pilgrim! I have at least 17 ancestors who came to America on the Mayflower. I know this because my grandparents were into genealogy, and they connected our family to numerous Pilgrims. I even have a certificate from the General Society of Mayflower Descendents saying that I’m a descendent of William White; the rest of them have not been proven (really this means that not enough paperwork/fees were filed). If you are related to one Pilgrim, that pretty much makes you related to a bunch of them.

I don’t do memes but I enjoy reading them. The conservative musician thing is a bit odd but you’re certainly not alone, although I can count my friends in that category on one hand. Still they are friends. The Cheeze-it obsession is actually the weirdest thing here to my mind. Not that they aren’t tasty little buggers but, I don’t know, a film??? Ha, whatever, that’s what makes the world so interesting!

This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it’s the family stories that are worth the storage.